There are three main ways that you can use modes in automations, and it’s important to understand the difference to get your Smart Home working for you.

Scenario 1: If you only want something to happen when your Smart Home is in a certain mode.

Let’s say that you’ve got a camera set up inside your home, and you’d like to be notified if it detects motion. So, you set up an automation that reads ‘If my Indoor camera detects motion, then email me a video clip.’

However, you probably don’t want video clips of yourself around the home, and so you only want to be notified if you are not at home and it detects motion.

We use modes as a ‘constraint’ in this case to only send us notification in certain modes. The automation is the same- ‘If my Indoor camera detects motion, then email me a video clip, when I’m in Away or Holiday mode.’

You can extend this to other scenarios as well- for example, you can turn on a light when the camera detects motion and you’re in night mode, or you can elect to turn on a light in the bedroom every day, unless you’re in Holiday mode.

Scenario 2: You want a mode change to make other things happen in your Smart Home.

Let’s say that you arrive home, and would like to turn on a light. The logic for this type of automation would read, ‘when my mode changes to home, turn on the light’.

While you can do this with a mode change, for these situations, we recommend using scenes instead as you can chain together many events within a single scene. Read more about using modes with scenes, below

Scenario 3: You want to schedule a mode change to happen at the same time, every day.

If you have a regular schedule, you may want your mode changes to happen at the same time every day.

For example, if you leave for work at 8am every weekday, then you can schedule a mode change to away at 8am so that you don’t forget.

The logic for this automation would be ‘At 8am on Monday-Friday, set my mode to Away’.

We’ve already set a constraint around days so that this doesn’t happen on the weekend, but we should also set a constraint on modes as we don’t want it to happen if we’re in Holiday mode: ‘At 8am on Monday-Friday, set my mode to Away, when my system is in Home, Away, or Night mode’.

To change modes:

Open the Telstra Smart Home® app.

Tap the current mode from the mode tile on My Place

The mode options will appear. Tap the mode you’d like to change to

Once your Smart Home has changed mode, the current mode will appear in the tile.

Using modes with scenes

Within scenes, one of the options available is to change the mode of your Smart Home. By default, changing the mode will change how your sensors respond to motion or other events, and so it’s wise to include them where relevant. For example- if there is motion and you’re away, you likely want to be notified. So, in the ‘Leaving’ scene, it would make sense to change the mode to Away, along with other actions like turning off lights and locking doors.

Good to know: You can also schedule a mode change, or change the mode as part of a scene.

Do I need to use modes when setting up automations?

No, you don’t. But they’re helpful

Modes can help you group and organise your automations. Rather than including specific times to turn on and off, you can link them to modes enabling you to control groups of automations.